Saturday, 21 January 2012

Weekly Round Up w/e 22/01/2012

Howdy all and welcome once again to the Birmingham
Skeptics weekly round up, gathering the good the bad and the faintly ridiculous
from all corners of the web. I did think of having a lie in this week and just
posting up a black page in protest to SOPA and PIPA, but
with support for those measures rapidly waning I’d better just get on with
it.

Let’s start with the trials and tribulations of Rhys Morgan. Not
unaccustomed to having to defend his views Rhys found that the use of an image
from the online cartoon JandMo
as his Facebook status attracted the attention of people around him that had,
at best, only an ironic grasp of the notion of freedom of speech. Rhys used the
image in support of the UCL Secularist
and Humanist Society who had been forced to take that image down and whose
president resigned over the matter.

Rhys eventually had to remove the Facebook image after pressure from his school
and a disgusting level of threat from his so-called peers but you can read
about it on his blog
and the clear and admirable way he addresses these issues. It’s difficult not
to be reminded of the kind of horrific abuse that Jessica Ahlquist has
been undergoing since beginning her stance to have a prayer banner removed from
her school. There is a reasonable summary
of events here, but have a scan down her
blog to contrast her measured approach to that of those who pile invective
and hate upon her.

Oh those crazy homeopaths always something to chuckle about with them. When
they’re not treating aids with water and sugar pills, headaches with water and
sugar pills in fact, most anything with water and sugar pills they’re providing
all kinds of unscientific and damaging medical advice. Read these Short and
Spiky posts here
and here
for a reminder of the sheer insanity of this ridiculous treatment. The second
one is a whole new level of stupid.

It’s time to go down under for our next couple of items. No, we’re not talking
about Australia; we’re talking derrieres and their emissions. In these days of heightened
security and identity theft it’s good to know that scientists are unafraid to
probe novel areas
of recognition. And finally on this topic, have you ever stopped to
consider astronaut
flatulence? No, why not, are you weird or something?

Here’s a
remarkable story of scientist, Paul Callaghan, trialling an alt med cure
for cancer on himself. I’m not sure why he’s bothering though because as this
post in the Telegraph explains, a mere lack of scientific evidence of
effectiveness isn’t actually a lack of evidence of effectiveness, or some such
nonsense.

There’s another twist on the ongoing Burzynski
debacle from Andy Lewis over at the Quackometer.
I don’t know why but the words to the Pseudo-Scientist’s
Song pop into my head at this point. Andy’s just launched a Facebook page too so if
you’re on that particular mode of social media head on over and “Like” it.

In an interesting sting Which?
asked several nutritionists for health advice and found them sadly lacking. It’s
a good read and well worth scanning down to the comments where we can see our
old friend David Colqhoun performing his usual stirling defence of science. You
can read his take on it over at his own
blog.

I find that just balancing my budget is hard enough, but it must be even
trickier for a whole US State. It’s good to know that Kentucky Governor
Steve Beshear has his priorities so well sorted to guide him. “Get your coats on kids, we’re heading to
Bible Land, don’t worry if you can’t read the signs you don’t need education in
heaven.”

Birmingham Skeptics in the Pub meet on the second Wednesday of the month for a speaker. We will often meet at other times too for extra talks, socials and events. Follow our social media or go to our .org site to make sure you know what's happening.